AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 329 



reduced. The water from thorough drains, as is well known, usually runs 

 free from apparent suspended substances. 



During drought in summer, the water in streams is much reduced by 

 thorough drainage ; the dry soil receives and absorbs the rain of showers 

 unless they continue for a long time and are very heavy. 



Sluggish rivers and streams throughout our western country oppose ob 

 stacks to proper land drainage, being generally kept full to the banks by 

 mill dams erected one below another, for miles in extent, rendering 

 it uttei-ly impossible to drain vast rich alluvial meadows, without embank- 

 ments or other artificial and costly means ; as I said before, they should be 

 demolished for the benefit of agriculture, and steam substituted. A very 

 striking example of the economical and beneficial result arising from the 

 destruction of mill dams, and the substitution of steam for water power, 

 has been exhibited under the operation of the Eye and Derwent Drainage 

 Act, resulting from the wise co-operation of the Earl of Carlisle to knock 

 down three mill dams and give the mills steam, thereby restoring the river 

 to its natural bed and proper functions as the great artery of drainage, 

 and enabling thousands of acres of valuable land to be drained and reclaimed 

 at a moderate cost. 



Every old authority, and all modern writers on drainage of land in 

 Europe, have condemned mill dams and water mills. The effect of exten- 

 sive drainage on main water courses is that of increasing the height of their 

 rise or flood times, and rendering the flow and subsidence more rapid than 

 before. 



Wherever it is practicable to collect the drainage water from higher lands 

 in ponds, and there storing it for irrigating lower lands, it should always 

 be done, 'as it contains valuable soluble manures in solution and suspension, 

 the fertilizing properties of which will render grass fields on lower levels 

 exceedingly luxuriant, and can be carried out on all farms having surfaces 

 at diff"erent altitudes ; besides, in many cases it may be made to drive a 

 water wheel, and do all the threshing, sawing and milling of the farm 

 before it is used for agricultural purposes. It will be found profitable on 

 all farms where drainage is carried on extensively, to form a pond at the 

 lowest level, and with a small steam engine convey the water in pipes for 

 irrigating higher levels during dry seasons. You would thus return to 

 them the enriching properties carried off in the drains. 



I had the water which was drawn by drains from a very large area of 

 land that had been most thoroughly manured with barn yard manure, guano, 

 lime, crushed bones, salt, plaster of Paris, &c., analyzed, the object being 

 to discover, for my own satisfaction, the total amount of these enriching 

 matters carried ofi" from land most thoroughly drained as this was. A 

 gallon of bright, clear, colorless water was collected and evaporated to 

 dryness, and the residue weighed a little over twelve grains, and contained 

 the following ingredients : 



Alkaline sulphates, A trace 



Silieious substances, A trace 



